Here in the UK the doctor prints out the prescription on special prescription paper and gives it to you. ...

On my last GP's appt, the doctor told me that they've just started sending prescriptions electronically; you have to have a 'nominated' chemist on your medical records and then it'll automatically go there and you can pick it up. I prefer to have it in my hand though.

I live in a village with one doctors' surgery and one chemist. I could probably get a printed prescription and take it to whatever chemist I wanted, but generally it is just sent electronically to the shop and I pick it up the next day. For my repeat prescriptions, I just have to telephone the surgery and then go to collect it.

Yeah, see that makes perfect sense in the place you live in for them to do that. I live in a big city, so there's any number of places I can take it.

My surgery doesn't do repeats over the phone. They'll do it in an emergency, but not as a matter of course. I'm not sure why - perhaps because it's a large inner city practice with bazillions of patients and they have to stick to a 'system'.

I get my medications delivered AND even preorder my groceries and have them taken directly to my car - is that lazier than drive through?

There are several reasons I do this:

(1) I'm not a social person and drive throughs/deliveries limit my social interactions (seriously, a work day is about all I can handle lol)(2) It keeps me from superfluous shopping(3) It makes sure I don't forget anything (to call in a refill/buy something on my list, etc)(4) Limits the time I need to be running errands and away from home(5) I often have my dogs in the car with me and I don't like leaving them alone in there

I love my drive thru pharmacy. My meds are all maintenance and set up on automatic refill, so I get an email telling me they're ready. I just drive down, 2 minutes in the drive thru, and I'm off. My doctor is part of a large medical group which includes all kinds of specialties, and they're all electronically linked to the pharmacy, so if there's a new prescription it's sent to the pharmacy while I'm in the office and ready for me to pick up by the time I get there.

I also work from home and suffer from mild to moderate depression. Most days I look like hammered hell, and it's sometimes a struggle just to get in my car and drive the 5 miles or so to the pharmacy. If I had to worry about looking like a human being on top of it, I'd never get there. This way, as long as the relevant bits are covered, it doesn't matter if they're covered by ratty sweatpants and my husband's old flannel shirt.

Here's my take on the pharmacy thing, from the midwest US. Doctors can and will give me a written physical prescription and I can take it to any pharmacy I durn well please. Frequently they ask me if there's any particular pharmacy that I prefer, as they can send the prescription electronically. I usually choose this, as often when they send the request ahead of time, my medicine is waiting for me by the time I get to the pharmacy. It's the option I choose, but I could also choose to switch to any other pharmacy at any time.

I do the drive-through because the pharmacy itself is located in the very back of the store. The best time for me to go get my medicine is also the best time for a lot of other people to go out shopping. When I was at a pharmacy without a drive-through I had to wait behind people who wanted to ask the pharmacy techs questions on every single thing, who wanted to discuss payment options, who wanted to argue about the prescription from their doctor. These people effectively blocked everyone else who wanted/needed anything.

Now that I go to a drive-thru pharmacy, I know my medicines are ready (I get text alerts from them, and can refill everything electronically as well) and go to the window. They have someone working specifically drive-through and someone working specifically the counter, so I don't have to wait for someone who wants to stand at the counter waiting for their medicine (sometimes takes 20-30 minutes to fill, if they don't step aside the tech can't check anyone else out). I also have my medicine completely covered by my insurance, so all I have to do is show up, verify my address on file, they give me medicines. No payment, nothing. It's simple.

As far as anything else goes, it's sometimes a matter of time, sometimes of convenience. If I've got to go to the bank to deposit one check (birthday money, rebate check, etc.) and the drive through lane is nearly empty while the parking lot is nearly full, I'm going to assume it's faster to do drive-through. Also, personally, when the weather is well into the 90s-100s or well below freezing (both of which we get with annual frequency) I'd prefer to stay in my car. It takes a while for my car to warm up/cool down, and even just a few minutes in a building tends to do a good job at getting the temperature on par with the outside temperature.

On Long Island in New York there is a drive thru convenience store, I think it's called "Dairy Barn". You can pick up milk, eggs, bread and other basic grocery items, plus coffee and beer I think. I believe the premise is that it's all about convenience as some of the PP's have mentioned (not having to get kids out of the car, late at night safety, etc.) I believe it's also safer and more economical for the shop owner. They are less likely to be robbed in the middle of the night by an intruder, they don't have to have extra staff to maintain the shelves and do cleanup/stocking, etc. Plus they are usually located in small parcel lots that don't have big parking lots, so the land and rent is ostensibly cheaper.

Just thought of one...who remembers the old photo processing booths (the Kodak Fotomat)? They were tiny drive up booths in the parking lot of major shopping malls or department stores where you could drop off your film and pick it up later. Not many casual photographers use film any more, but I remember spending a lot of time with my mom getting our film developed.

Just thought of one...who remembers the old photo processing booths (the Kodak Fotomat)? They were tiny drive up booths in the parking lot of major shopping malls or department stores where you could drop off your film and pick it up later. Not many casual photographers use film any more, but I remember spending a lot of time with my mom getting our film developed.

There's also a lot of small coffee shop drive thrus around.

I forgot about the photo booths. They were about the size of a largish closet, but were EVERYWHERE that I lived in the US.

Just thought of one...who remembers the old photo processing booths (the Kodak Fotomat)? They were tiny drive up booths in the parking lot of major shopping malls or department stores where you could drop off your film and pick it up later. Not many casual photographers use film any more, but I remember spending a lot of time with my mom getting our film developed.

There's also a lot of small coffee shop drive thrus around.

I actually worked in one of those in the 1980s for probably about a year to a year and a half. I was called a "Fotomate".

It was an interesting job because it was a lot of responsilbity really--customer service, inventory, opening and closing out a cash register, etc.

Just thought of one...who remembers the old photo processing booths (the Kodak Fotomat)? They were tiny drive up booths in the parking lot of major shopping malls or department stores where you could drop off your film and pick it up later. Not many casual photographers use film any more, but I remember spending a lot of time with my mom getting our film developed.

There's also a lot of small coffee shop drive thrus around.

I actually worked in one of those in the 1980s for probably about a year to a year and a half. I was called a "Fotomate".

It was an interesting job because it was a lot of responsilbity really--customer service, inventory, opening and closing out a cash register, etc.

We had those, but I haven't seen one in a while. The last one I knew of became a "drive through postal center" when just doing film became too much. I just walked in, though. I believe they closed sometime in the last five years.

I didn't see anyone else mention this, but I live where is gets very cold. I like the drive-thru pharmacy so I don't have to get out of my warm car into the freezing weather and then into a warm store. It's a lot of bundling and unbundling. I pretty much never have to go to the credit union (like a bank). I do everything electronically. However, my dog loves car rides. The credit union has dog treats in the drive thru. Once in a while, I will take my dog with me to the credit union.

PODding what BigBadBetty said!I am in favor of anything that keeps me from having to leave groceries in the car where my dog can get into them or getting out of the car in the snow and ice and possibly hurting myself!

Ok, first post did sound a bit antagonistic but that may be because as I said, drive thrus aren't as prevalent here. Antagonism wasn't my intention. And thank you perpetua of seeing my point.

Though I think we used have drive thru bottle-o (liquour store).

I do like the idea of pharmacies being drive thru.

We've still got the odd drive through bottle shop in my part of Oz but they are becoming rarer, I think it's the whole drink driving issue coming into play.

Drive thru chemists could be good but you could end up spending a fair bit of time waiting while they filled your prescription if they were busy

I've only ever seen drive through at the big fast food chains, usually the US ones, the only non US based chain to have one that I've seen is Red Rooster

Drive thru pharmacies - I haven't taken a prescription to a pharmacy in years. The doctor's office submits it to my pharmacy on line/by phone and it is ready when I get there. I often need OTC meds also so I don't use the drive thru. The only time my prescription hasn't been ready when I got there it was because the docs at the walk in clinic (allergic reaction needed stronger meds on a Sunday) did NOT listen and prescribed something I can't take (In a family of drugs but was new to me). They had to get my permission to call the doc back.